


Where's Your Heart At?

by MidnightMarev



Series: Sanders Sides One-Shots [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Deceit is non-binary, Deceit's name is Ezra Moriarty, He's a medical engineer, Logan is a surgeon, Patton is genderfluid, She doesn't say anything, She's just there for a brief moment, Uses she/her pronouns in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2019-11-09
Packaged: 2021-01-26 08:46:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21371377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidnightMarev/pseuds/MidnightMarev
Summary: Set in the year 2123, Logan is a heart-surgeon who is about to operate on a high-profile patient. Though the patient is adamant, Logan tries to change the patient's mind about which heart should be chosen. What will be chosen and what will Logan have to say about it?
Series: Sanders Sides One-Shots [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1562938
Kudos: 17





	Where's Your Heart At?

**Author's Note:**

> This is me changing some words and sentences in an already written short story. It's called "Segregationist" and is written by Isaac Asimov in 1967. We read this in our English lessons a few days ago, and I could not help but imagine Logan being the surgeon and Deceit as the medical engineer and Roman as the Senator. It is actually a good read. Normally I don't really like what we are made to read, but I really like this one.
> 
> I might build more onto this story and make a series out of it. Depends on my motivational levels and what you guys think about it.

The surgeon, Logan Vass, looked up without expression. “Is he ready?”

“Ready is a relative term,” the med-eng Ezra Moriarty said. “We're ready. He's restless.”

“They always are… Well, it's a serious operation.”

“Serious or not, he should be thankful. He's been chosen for it over an enormous number of possibles, and frankly, I don't think-“

“Don't say it,” Logan interrupted. “The decision is not ours to make.”

“We accept it. But do we have to agree?”

“Yes,” the surgeon said, crisply. “We agree. Completely and wholeheartedly. The operation is entirely too intricate to approach with mental reservations. This man has proven his worth in several ways, and his profile is suitable for the Board of Mortality.”

“All right,” Ezra said, unmollified.

“I'll see him right in here, I think. It is small enough and personal enough to be comforting,” Logan said.

“It won't help. He's nervous, and he's made up his mind.”

“Has he indeed?” Logan had to mentally stop himself from sighing. He already knew the answer.

“Yes. He wants metal; they always do,” Ezra said. They didn’t really care all that much what the patients wanted. As long as they got paid.

Logan’s face did not change expression. He stared at his hands. “Sometimes, one can talk them out of it.”

“Why bother?” said the med-eng, indifferently. “If he wants metal, let it be metal.”

“You don't care?” Logan looked at Ezra, but still, he did not pull a mine.

“Why should I?” Ezra said it almost brutally. “Either way it's a medical engineering problem and I'm a medical engineer. Either way, I can handle it. Why should I go beyond that?”

“To me, it is a matter of the fitness of things,” the surgeon said stolidly.

“Fitness! You can't use that as an argument. What does the patient care about the fitness of things?” Ezra mocked.

“I care.”

“You care in a minority. The trend is against you. You have no chance.”

“I have to try.” Logan waved Ezra into silence with a quick wave of his hand - no impatience to it, merely quickness. He had already informed the nurse, Patton, and he had already been signalled concerning her approach. He pressed a small button, and the double-door pulled swiftly apart. The patient moved inward in his motor chair, the nurse stepping briskly along beside him.

“You may go, nurse Patton,” Logan said. “But wait outside. I will be calling you.” He nodded to the med-eng, who left with Patton, and the door closed behind them.

The man in the chair looked over his shoulder and watched them go. His neck was scrawny, and there were fine wrinkles about his eyes. He was freshly shaven and the fingers of his hands, as they gripped the arms of the chair tightly, showed manicured nails. He was a high-priority patient, and he was being taken care of. ... But there was a look of settled peevishness on his face.

“Will we be starting today?” he asked.

Logan nodded. “This afternoon, Senator Krews.”

“I understand it will take weeks.”

“Not for the operation itself, Senator. But there are several subsidiary points to be taken care of. There are some circulatory renovations that must be carried through and hormonal adjustments. These are tricky things.”

“Are they dangerous?” Senator Roman Krews asked. Then, as though feeling the need for establishing a friendly relationship, but patently against his will, he added, “… doctor?”

Logan paid no attention to the nuances of expression. Flatly he said:, “Everything is dangerous. We take our time so that it be less dangerous. It is the time required, the skill of many individuals united, the equipment, that makes such operations available to so few-”

“I know that,” the patient said, restlessly. “I refuse to feel guilty about that. Or are you implying improper pressure?”

“Not at all, Senator. The decisions of the Board have never been questioned. I mention the difficulty and intricacy of the operation merely to explain my desire to have it conducted in the best fashion possible.”

“Well, do so, then. That is my desire, also.”

Even though Logan knew the answer already, he asked: “Then I must ask you to make a decision. It is possible to supply you with either of two types of cyber-hearts, metal or-”

“Plastic!” Senator Roman said, irritably. “Isn't that the alternative you were going to offer, doctor? Cheap plastic. I don't want that. I've made my choice. I want metal.”

”But-”

“See here. I've been told the choice rests with me. Isn't that so?”

Logan nodded. “Where two alternate procedures are of equal value from a medical standpoint, the choice rests with the patient. In actual practice, the choice rests with the patient even when the alternate procedures are not of equal value, as in this case.”

Roman narrowed his eyes. “Are you trying to tell me the plastic heart is superior?”

“It depends on the patient. In my opinion, in your individual case, it is. And we prefer not to use the term, plastic. It is a fibrous cyber-heart.”

“It's plastic as far as I am concerned.”

“Senator,” Logan said, infinitely patient. “The material is not plastic in the ordinary sense of the word. It is a polymeric material true, but one that is far more complex than ordinary plastic. It is a complex protein-like fibre designed to imitate, as closely as possible, the natural structure of the human heart you now have within your chest.”

“Exactly, and the human heart I now have within my chest is worn out even though I’m not even sixty years old! I don't want another one like it, thank you very much. I want something better.”

“We all want something better for you, Senator. The fibrous cyber-heart will be better. It has a potential life of centuries. It is absolutely non-allergenic-”

“Isn't that so for the metallic heart, too?” Roman interrupted yet again.

“Yes, it is,” the surgeon said. “The metallic cyber is of a titanium alloy that-”

“And it doesn't wear out? And it is stronger than plastic? Or fibre or whatever you want to call it?”

“The metal is physically stronger, yes, but mechanical strength is not a point at issue. Its mechanical strength does you no particular good since the heart is well protected. Anything capable of reaching the heart will kill you for other reasons even if the heart stands up under manhandling.”

The Senator shrugged. “If I ever break a rib, I'll have that replaced by titanium, also. Replacing bones is easy. Anyone can have that done anytime. I'll be as metallic as I want to be, doctor.”

“That is your right if you so choose. However, it is only fair to tell you that although no metallic cyber-heart has ever broken down mechanically, a number have broken down electronically.”

“What does that mean?” Roman asked, sceptically.

“It means that every cyber-heart contains a pacemaker as part of its structure. In the case of the metallic variety, this is an electronic device that keeps the cyber in rhythm. It means an entire battery of miniaturised equipment must be included to alter the heart's rhythm to suit an individual's emotional and physical state. Occasionally something goes wrong there, and people have died before that wrong could be corrected,” Logan explained, ever patient.

“I never heard of such a thing,” Roman scoffed.

“I assure you it happens.”

“Are you telling me it happens often?”

“Not at all. It happens very rarely.”

“Well, then, I'll take my chance. What about the plastic heart? Doesn't that contain a pacemaker?” Roman, ever the sceptic, asked the doctor.

“Of course it does, Senator. But the chemical structure of a fibrous cyber-heart is quite close to that of human tissue. It can respond to the ionic and hormonal controls of the body itself. The entire complex that need be inserted is far simpler than in the case of the metal cyber.”

“But doesn't the plastic heart ever pop out of hormonal control?” Roman was trying to make Logan see flaws in his reasoning.

“None has ever yet done so.”

“Because you haven't been working with them long enough. Isn't that so?” Roman tried again, this time feeling victorious.

Logan hesitated. “It is true that the fibrous cybers have not been used nearly as long as the metallic.”

“There you are. What is it anyway, doctor? Are you afraid I'm making myself into a robot… into a Metallo, as they call them since citizenship went through?”

“There is nothing wrong with a Metallo as a Metallo. As you say, they are citizens. But you're not a Metallo. You're a human being. Why not stay a human being?” Logan inquired.

“Because I want the best and that's a metallic heart. You see to that.”

The surgeon nodded. “Very well. You will be asked to sign the necessary permissions, and you will then be fitted with a metal heart.”

“And you'll be the surgeon in charge? They tell me you're the best.”

“I will do what I can to make the changeover an easy one.”

The door opened, and the chair moved the patient out to the waiting nurse Patton.

Ezra came in, looking over their shoulder at the receding patient until the doors had closed again.

They turned to Logan. “Well, I can't tell what happened just by looking at you. What was his decision?”

Logan bent over his desk, punching out the final items for his records. “What you predicted. He insists on the metallic cyber-heart.”

“They are better, after all,” Ezra said with a smug smile.

“Not significantly. They've been around longer; no more than that. It's this mania that's been plaguing humanity ever since Metallos have become citizens. Men have this odd desire to make Metallos out of themselves. They yearn for the physical strength and endurance one associates with them.”

“It isn't one-sided, doc. You don't work with Metallos, but I do; so I know. The last two who came in for repairs have asked for fibrous elements,” Ezra shrugged.

“Did they get them?” Ezra had piqued Logan’s curiosity.

“In one case, it was just a matter of supplying tendons; it didn't make much difference there, metal or fibre. The other wanted a blood system or its equivalent. I told her I couldn't; not without a complete rebuilding of the structure of her body in fibrous material. ... I suppose it will come to that someday. Metallos that aren't really Metallos at all, but a kind of flesh and blood,” Ezra said, boredom evident in their voice.

“You don't mind that thought?” Logan asked, more than a bit confused.

“Why not? And metallised human beings, too. We have two varieties of intelligence on Earth now and why bother with two. Let them approach each other and eventually we won't be able to tell the difference. Why should we want to? We'd have the best of both worlds; the advantages of man combined with those of robot.”

“You'd get a hybrid,” Logan said, with something that approached fierceness. “You'd get something that is not both, but neither. Isn't it logical to suppose an individual would be too proud of their structure and identity to want to dilute it with something alien? Would they want mongrelisation?”

“That's segregationist talk,” Ezra pointed out.

“Then let it be that,” Logan said with calm emphasis, “I believe in being what one is. I wouldn't change a bit of my own structure for any reason. If some of it absolutely required replacement, I would have that replacement as close to the original in nature as could possibly be managed. I am myself; well pleased to be myself, and would not be anything else.”

He had finished now and had to prepare for the operation. He placed his strong hands into the heating oven and let them reach the dull red-hot glow that would sterilise them completely. For all his impassioned words, his voice had never risen, and on his burnished metal face, there was - as always - no sign of expression.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, how many of you had already figured out that Logan was a Metallo? I made the connection pretty fast when I read it the first time.
> 
> I'm sorry if it was a boring read and nothing really happened, but I might be planning something for the future. Who knows? 
> 
> Please let me know what you think in the comments and if you think I should continue building onto this story. I personally think this has a lot of potential for continuation.


End file.
